Thank you Jesus for napping babies and a kid's program with activities!

The cutest wrangler on this ranch, hands down.

My kids are experiencing fun like no other and tired like no other up here at 8,000 feet.

We're here at Deer Valley! Oh my gosh, did it take a lot to get here, but has been crazy worth it so far. We started out Saturday morning at 5am leaving Charleston and driving to Charlotte to catch our flight to Denver. The kids did mildly ok on the drive, but they were all too, too excited to sleep. In fact, when I went into Glory's room to wake her up at 5am, her eyes were already open and she said, "Is it time?!"

Our travel day was loooooong. When we got to the Charlotte airport, we saw a massive line the length of a football field and then realized it was the check-in for our airline. Womp womp. Our flight was delayed (luckily) so we didn't miss our flight due to standing in line for two hours. I won't bore you with the details, but add on a 3.5 hour plane ride with a screaming baby and a 3 hour car ride from Denver to the Ranch and we. were. toast. In the back of my head, I kept thinking - is this worth it? Should we have just done a stay-cation?

It only took me a few minutes here at Deer Valley to see it is totally worth it. Saving the money, making the trek. They could tell we were exhausted and the staff starting going out of their way to crazy accommodate us - doing check in at our dinner table so we could get some food in our bellies, continually helping the kids, fresh cookies in our cabin. And our cabin! The kids are in heaven here. Fun deer heads on the wall and they can play in the "front yard" which is actually just a beautiful piece of land in front of the chalk cliffs.

Our first day here, we just acclimated to a new place and to the altitude. We're kind of relearning what it looks like to be with just our little family 24/7 and no work, church, or responsibilities to distract. I have to say it's crazy beautiful. My favorite moments so far have just been stolen bits of really seeing my kids in all their glory and having nothing between us to distract. Saturday night at orientation, the big kids all curled up on a couch with me and just sat for 30 minutes while we listened and Benja even fell asleep. It's been so sweet seeing Elias enjoy ALL THE FOOD. Glory has loved getting to know the amazing staff - lots of college girls here for the summer - she loves talking to them and tries to serve alongside them, she even asked if she could spend half the day cleaning with the housekeeping crew! Cannon has been quite a fuss monster getting used to the altitude and getting over a cold, but I still can't imagine being here without him.

Nick and I are soaking up some seriously quiet nights. Last night we put the kids to bed, gathered some blankets and read on the porch for hours. We haven't done that in years and it was straight up heavenly. The next few days hold lots of hiking, horseback riding, and fishing and I'll be back on Wednesday with another post! You can follow on instagram where I'm updating any time I get a little sliver of internet! Happy Monday friends!